1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to configuring a mobile receiver device, such as a cell phone, to output to a user the maximum amount of a received message.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless communication devices are fast becoming the communications media of choice for transporting data, and communicating data between users of the devices. Many types of wireless devices are currently being used such as cellular phones, wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers and other devices with small displays which display text and icons to users of the devices. The strong push in current wireless technology development is for increasingly smaller devices with greater computing power so that businessmen, students, and other users can always be in contact with the important people in their lives while maintaining adequate communication power to receive and transmit all of the data and information which has an impact on them.
Current standards and specifications in the wireless environment require that wireless markup language (WML) be used for browsing. The well-known wireless application protocol (WAP) specifies that WML will be used for communication and browsing for all mobile devices. This is analogous to the use of hyper-text markup language (HTML) in Internet applications where HTML is used to design browsers for, among other things, surfing the Internet. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, HTML is particularly well-suited for designing browsers to be used on a typical computer screen, usually a 15xe2x80x3, 17xe2x80x3 or 19xe2x80x3 color monitor. This provides nearly unlimited space for text messages and content. In contrast, WML is designed for wireless devices with very small screens or displays, and so there is much less room for displaying data, messages, text and other content on a wireless device. This limitation creates problems with displaying text-based content on wireless devices since when the content becomes larger than the small screen can display, it must be xe2x80x9cwrapped aroundxe2x80x9d the screen or otherwise segmented so that the entire text content cannot be seen at one time on the display.
There thus is a need for a method for converting text-based content which relies on other than HTML protocols for display of text content that cannot be fully displayed on a small screen to a user.
In addition, since not all wireless devices have the same ability to handle messages, it is possible that an incoming message may have more components than the receiver device can output. There is therefore also a need for a method for outputting only the portions or components of an incoming message that are compatible with the receiver device.
In accordance with the present invention, the capabilities of a message receiver device, such as a cell phone, is determined. For example, the maximum length is determined of a text message that can be displayed on a display of the receiver, that is the number of characters of a particular font size that can be presented on the receiver""s display. Alternatively, it is determined whether the device can present one or more of text messages, image messages, sound messages, and voice messages, where images messages includes still images and moving images (i.e., videos). When a message is received, it is determined whether the receiver is capable of outputting the entire message or only a portion. The portion of the message that cannot be output is either suppressed or is converted to another form of output recognizable by a user of a device. For example, if a display of the receiver device, such as a cell phone, does not have the capacity to display the entirety of a received text message due to, for example display space limitations of the display, the portion of the message which cannot be displayed is converted to another form which is accessible to, and recognizable by, the user, such as an audio output.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, when a received message comprises more than one form, such as a text portion, an audio portion, and an image or graphical portion, only those portions of the message which the device is able to output are actually output by the device. Alternatively, a portion of the received message is output in another form, either instead of its original form or in addition to its original form, even though the device is capable of outputting the initial form. For example, a received message may include text and a picture; both can be and are outputted by the device, but the text is also output as speech.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the devices are wireless devices which employ a WML-based browser, although other forms of browsers may be implemented. Moreover, the present invention is implementable with other than wireless devices, especially when such devices, for example laptop computers and PDAs, are equipped with small displays that cannot accommodate large volumes of text. The present invention also may provide voice recognition capability which will allow for fast and efficient access to data by a user which would otherwise be required to use a manual input device such as a keyboard, mouse, trackball, keypad or capacitive input device.
These and other features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims.